8 things your business should consider before you set your new CMS website live

Okay, so its fair to say that there’s a lot more than eight things that your business should consider before any brand-new CMS website goes live.

That’s to say every single business is different, and so a lot of testing will normally be needed before a new CMS website goes live.

But there are some common issues that a lot of businesses can encounter when they invest in a new website.

That’s to say, sometimes a website can go live, and the business may not spot an issue until a few months down the road- by that point, well your business may have lost some customers, so here at this web design agency we always carry out testing, that’s by our web developers and also our web designers.

So, here’s some of the things that your web design company may wish to check:

It’s all well and good hiring an expensive digital marketing agency, and the CMS website looks great, yet then you hear from some customers “your website doesn’t work on my smartphone, I can’t complete my purchase”– well you know then there’s definitely a problem.

And here’s the thing, your website must work across different smartphone operating systems, also your website should be updated, that’s so that it will continue to work without developing a glitch.

For example, its possible to invest in a CMS website, and the website works fine now, but if the web design company does not keep your businesses website updated, well it may develop glitches, so the contact us form may stop working for example, or the main menu may stop working for example.

So your design agency should carry out user testing, this is to make sure that every aspect of your website works, such as the main menu, the mobile version of the website, the social media icons and the contact us box.

Also, your web design company may carry out split testing, or A/B testing for your business, this is to alter the HTML or CSS to see if they can improve your website. Your business may hire a web design business to carry out A/B testing to see for example if your company can reduce its bounce rate.

# Proof read

So, you may have a web design company building a WordPress CMS website for your business, then you may have hired a separate SEO agency to write the content?

So, its now just a matter of sending the content marketing over to the web design company to place on your WordPress website, right?

Well, no, that’s because its so important that every page is proof read, and we don’t mean just trying to spot spelling mistakes, what we mean is does the content marketing have the ability to turn visitors into customers?

If the content marketing does not do that, in the sense it will not encourage your customers to buy from your company, then you need to make sure its improved, the reason for this is your business could incur a high bounce rate, that’s if the work is not of a high-quality.

Again your business may wish to use split testing, or A/B testing, that’s to try different text, for example does using bullet points instead of a long product description improve the level of sales that your business makes?

Have you invested in the right CMS?

It’s all well and good the website designers stating they have built their own CMS, but how good is it?

Is the CMS easy to use?

Can you add blog posts easily?

If you find say in two years’ time the web design company has closed its doors, and the CMS then starts to develop glitches, then who you going to turn to for help?

Are there many web developers that can help as your CMS is built by that web design agency?

Would it not be better to choose a CMS that’s widely used across the world, such as WordPress?

With WordPress you can find thousands of website developers, which means that finding help, and not feeling as though your stuck with that web design agency, that’s because to find a WordPress web developer is very easy.

Plus, there are many Cardiff web design company’s that build WordPress websites.

404 errors?

Click every link on your new website, this is so you don’t see a 404-error, or page not found.

Sure, your website designers may say that they carry out testing that’s before the website goes live, but what use is that if the website goes live, then a key page doesn’t work?

That’s to say you run an insurance business, and you find that the home insurance page doesn’t work, obviously its crucial that this is fixed.

So, click the anchor text of every link, and make sure that every link works.

Blog posts

A lot of businesses here in Cardiff will want to hire a web design business and then as soon as the website is built, then they will want to start then improving the businesses organic SEO.

So, a lot of businesses will make sure that they have blog posts written, this is so that they can start adding these in order to improve the businesses seo.

However, with some CMS, content management systems it’s an absolute piece of cake to add a blog post.

Then without any coding knowledge, that’s to say no knowledge of HTML or CSS you can add a blog post, you can with some CMS’s then add H1-H6 tags, and meta titles, meta descriptions, alt tag, that’s without a web designer.

However some web designers will build a website using their own CMS, and the backend, or the admin area may well be much more difficult than WordPress, so do weigh up which CMS your business wants to invest in.

Meta titles and meta descriptions

So, you’ve just been to your website designers’ offices, and you’ve approved the design, but what about the SEO?

Sure, you may wish to hire a separate seo agency, but has the website designers added meta titles, meta descriptions and alt tags?

Have you chosen a catchy domain name?

Let’s say you need a plumber, and your on the way home from work, and you see a van, and decide that you will have a look at the business’s website after work.

Yet, an hour later you have forgotten the domain name, and the businesses name, well there’s a million and one other businesses that sound like that company, so our advice is this, pick a domain name that people will remember easily.

You will want a website that is high-quality, and we can supply this, as well as white hat seo, but you as the business owner shouldn’t rush coming up with a catchy name.

Don’t opt for the cheapest

Sure there’s some things you can save money on, like not opting for an office right in the city centre of Cardiff, as the rent might be high, and instead opting for an office that is in a cheaper area of Cardiff, but do you really want to save money on your website?

Often businesses that are just setting up in Cardiff will opt for the cheapest quote, that’s when having a website built, but if you need to change the website in say a years time, that’s because the website does not correctly advertise your business, well surely that’s a false economy?

So for those businesses that want a quality website, well why not call us? We can build a quality Joomla or WordPress website.